Breakdown: Purdue's win over Michigan State

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One (highly dubious) traveling call aside, Trevion Williams seems to produce every single time his team so badly needs to lean on its best player in high-leverage moments.

That's the player the Boilermaker junior has become, that foundation, that rock, capable of carrying his team to wins, as he did Tuesday night against Michigan State, a 75-65 Boilermaker win to wrap a two-game regular season sweep of the Spartans.

Continuing his career-long penchant for laying waste to teams from his adopted home state of Michigan, Williams went for 28 points, tormenting Michigan State's overmatched big men and the Spartans' choice to play him one-on-one around the basket.

"No one on the team could guard him," freshman Jaden Ivey said of Michigan State. "It's just that simple. He's just so versatile and the shots that he takes, they're tough shots. You can't even do anything about It."

The Spartans actually were effective on occasion at not letting Purdue's bigs establish their preferred position right at the iron.

Didn't matter. Williams made long hooks and turnarounds at difficult angles, tough bank shots and just a variety of baskets that would have beaten any of the Big Ten's many elite big men in a game of H-O-R-S-E.

"Trevion is tough," guard Eric Hunter said. "I've seen him make every different type of shot at this point, with his right hand. He works on that stuff. He's like a circus shot champion. I don't know what it is, but he's ridiculous."

And he did it in big moments, like the difficult turnaround he made with three minutes left after Aaron Henry's three off one of Purdue's few live-ball turnovers on the night cut a seemingly commanding six-point Boilermaker lead in half.

Before Mason Gillis iced the win by making eight free throws on as many tries in the final 2:42 and Purdue forced three turnovers in the final minute, Williams scored seven in a row for the Boilermakers and wound up scoring nine of his 28 in the final five minutes.

Prior, this was just a one-point game with six minutes to go, a back-and-forth game that included eight lead changes starting late in the first half. That Purdue closed this close game out was significant for a team that had lost heartbreakers at Maryland and Minnesota lately.

"Minnesota, we should have won that game," freshman Jaden Ivey said. "We're out of the rankings because of that loss, but that doesn't define us as a team. We bounced back vs. Michigan State."

It was Purdue's plan to lean on Williams heavily against Michigan State.

Matt Painter says his team's 16-point first half in East Lansing weeks ago hammered home the importance of doing just that, as Williams dominated the second half and sunk a game-winner to cap it off.

Tonight had to be Williams' night again.

"Going into the game, Coach harped on me and Zach (Edey) to be physical and put those guys at the rim," Williams said. "We wanted to come in and be dominant down low. We knew this game would come down to being physical, not turning the ball over, having a fight and rebounding."

More simply, it would come down to Williams, and again, he delivered.

"It's kind of in the back of my head," Williams said. "I know the team relies on me."

No pressure, he says.

"Playing with Carsen (Edwards) so long, you don't feel pressure anymore," Williams said. "With some of those high-level guys, you just get used to it. Me and Eric (Hunter) had to come in freshman year and be ready to play. Pressure isn't a thing anymore."

Because of Michigan State's physical and tenacious defense in the halfcourt, this profiled as a game where Jaden Ivey might have chances to make a real impact by attacking.

He did, but that was only part of the story of one of the freshman's finest all-around games of the season.

Ivey scored 11 points, handed out three assists, grabbed five rebounds, blocked two shots, led Purdue at +12 in the plus-minus and shot through the Boilermakers like a jolt of electricity at precisely the right moment.

With 10 minutes to go, Purdue led by a mere two, 49-47.

Ivey dunked off a cut and an assist from Williams.

Gabe Brown responded with a three. A one-point game.

Ivey then drained a catch-and-shoot three-pointer off a kickout from Williams.

The young guard then blocked Michigan State forward Joey Hauser at the rim, igniting a break, and found Eric Hunter for a three from the corner.

Suddenly Purdue led by seven.

It wouldn't hold up — Michigan State was soon back within one — but those back-to-back threes Ivey created accounted for two of the mere three the Boilermakers made, on 12 attempts, and they came at an opportune moment.

After a 6-of-8, 14-point game at Minnesota, Hunter was again 6-of-8, this time for 15 points, creating most of his scoring off the dribble, as he and Ivey gave Purdue some needed playmaking ability against that stingy Spartan defense.

"I'm definitely looking to be more aggressive," Hunter said. "As an older guy, you see stuff we need at certain times. Before, I was a guy who made shot-clock-type plays and I've just got back to doing it."

Hunter, Purdue's primary ball-handler, didn't turn the ball over, either, the face of a crucial feat in that sense. The Boilermakers committed only seven turnovers, against Michigan State's 16.

"We knew it was going to be a scrappy game, them trying to get in passing lanes," Hunter said. "We just made sure we took care of the ball and gave ourselves a chance every time down."

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